knowing that they do not disappear, for were they to disappear, the self would disappear. It is an essential attribute of it.
Do you not see how the knower of the learned and judge of the wise asked for well-being and commanded it? He said, “When you ask God, ask Him for well-being.” If you are afflicted, you have asked for well-being; if you possess well-being, you have asked for its continuance. It derives from “the trace vanished,” when it departs. Well-being is the departure of affliction’s trace from one in whom it subsists.
(Seeking Well-Being and Acknowledging Causes)
Courtesy toward God includes the servant’s standing with his incapacity, poverty, and need. Being free of need through God does not mean being free of need for God, nor for creatures collectively. It is valid with respect to a particular creature, whom one may dispense with through another.
God did not establish causes in vain. Some are essential causes that cannot be removed here, while others are incidental and can be removed. Composition and combination cannot be removed from a body while corporeality’s ruling remains within it. This cause can disappear only through the body’s entity passing out of existence.
Since original causes do not disappear, let us acknowledge incidental causes out of courtesy toward God, without relying upon them, keeping the passing thought attached to God. It cannot validly attach to God for God’s sake, for that is impossible. It attaches to God only on account of causes. This is the limit of knowing them. Thus
Notlar
Translator’s note TN4145-1: Well-being, ʿāfiya, is connected with ʿafā al-athar, the vanishing of a trace. The causal argument distinguishes essential causes that cannot be removed while a thing remains itself from replaceable, incidental causes.
